Babies are not fed in the best way recommended by the WHO, and in Spain, the Breastfeeding Committee of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics states: “Exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of a child’s life and thereafter.” breastfeeding along with other foods that supplement the diet up to 2 years of age and beyond, if the mother and child so desire.”

This diet is followed by less than half of the children in the world. The reasons are many: social gender conditioning, erroneous political inequality of the government. A series of articles published in a scientific journal Lancet report this situation and point directly to misleading marketing strategies and usage influencers prescription companies.

The industry uses bad science to suggest that its products are the solution to children’s health.

Linda Richter, University of the Witwatersrand

As recommended Lancet The responsibility for proper nutrition of children should lie not only with mothers, but also with society, which must provide conditions for the implementation of proper nutrition. The world has 650 million women without any kind of maternity protection, according to a prestigious medical publication.

“Infants are more likely to survive and reach their full potential when they are breastfed. Breastfeeding promotes brain development, protects babies from malnutrition, infectious disease and death, while reducing the risk of obesity and chronic disease in the future. However, around the world, many women who wish to breastfeed face numerous barriers, including insufficient parental leave and lack of support in health systems and the workplace in the context of the exploitative marketing tactics of the commercial formula industry. Rafael Perez-Escamilla, co-creator of the series and professor at the Yale University School of Public Health (USA)..

baby killer

WHO developed the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes in 1981 at the initiative of a major NGO campaign. War on want who published the study Child killer on Nestlé’s marketing of infant formula in low- and middle-income countries in the 1990s. 1970.

A speart reviewed 153 studies detailing how Marketing practices that violate the Code continue in nearly 100 countries and regions of the world.. According to The Lancet, the voluntary adoption of the Code is not enough and requires an international legal agreement on the commercial marketing of baby food to protect the health and well-being of mothers and families.

“This new study highlights the enormous economic and political power of large formula milk companies, as well as the serious failures of government policies that prevent millions of women from breastfeeding their children,” says the professor. Nigel Rollins, WHO scientist and author of an article on the marketing of infant formula. The study directly exploits parents’ concerns about normal infant behavior, suggesting that commercial dairy products ease anxiety or crying, help with colic, or prolong night’s sleep.

“The formula industry uses bad science to suggest, with little supporting evidence, that its products are the solution to common infant health and development problems,” he says. Linda Richter, Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. “This marketing technique clearly violates the 1981 Code, which states that labels must not romanticize the use of formulas to sell more products.”

WHO and Lancet reported that sales of infant formula are on the rise despite the fact that formula feeding does not provide the same nutritional, health, and developmental benefits as breastfeeding. The heavy marketing of infant formula continues unabated, with sales of these products now approaching US$55 billion a year.

“In this new report, authors from the World Health Organization, academia and nongovernmental organizations around the world expose the misinformation targeted at families by infant formula manufacturers and the political, social and cultural aspects of the industry to change parental decision making to increase sales. He marketing formula milk can be very devastating to humanity because its success depends on weakening the bond between mother and child to undermine breastfeeding,” he says. Robert Boyle Professor of Pediatric Allergology at Imperial College LondonIt is reported by Science Media Center Spain.

Who does not cry, not mom

To demand that the right to breastfeed in public places be regulated, at the Plaza del Museo Reina Sofía at the end of January 2023 in Madrid, this installation Christina Iglesias call Who does not cry, not mom. The purpose of this initiative, developed by a non-profit organization tit and tit is to call on the Spanish government to regulate the right to breastfeed in public places and prohibit its protection by any law. According to a recent study cited by Europa Press, more than half of mothers felt condemned when they breastfed in public.

Lobby with anti-feminist arguments

Research Lancet draws attention to the ability of formula manufacturers to influence national political decisions and intervene in national and international regulatory processes.

The authors describe how the formula industry presents breastfeeding promotion as a moral judgment that is anti-feminist and harmful to women, while presenting formula as a convenient and empowering solution for working mothers.

In this sense, new forms of digital advertising have made it possible to bridge the gap between advertising and nutrition and care advice, especially through influencers and industry-sponsored apps for parents with 24/7 chat services that allow you to post products, offer free samples or offers, and promote online.